Review: Ambitious chef’s second restaurant brings promise to Midtown

The menu at Medusa, the Sicilian restaurant that opened in Midtown in January, begins with sfincione. 

In Sicily, sfincione is a common street food, the spongy bread topped with bright, acidic tomatoes, a blend of anchovies and cheese and crunchy breadcrumbs, handed off everywhere in Palermo from the side of the road to bakeries and cafes. At Medusa, the bread is delivered as a small, puffy round pie cut into quarters. A crispy, crackly blanket of breadcrumbs peppered with minty oregano covers a thin layer of briny anchovy and cheese like paper defeating a rock in a game of rock, paper scissors. 

As far as the Detroiters in the room are concerned, the sfincione at Medusa could very well be a personal pan of Detroit-style pizza. 

As a starter, the sfincione here is a grounding element. With its charred caciocavallo, or Southern Italian cheese curds, draped over the edge of the pie, the bread is so akin to the city’s trademark pizza that it brings the diner into the world of Sicilian cuisine with a familiar usher. 

It’s unlikely a coincidental move by the profoundly deliberate chef-owner Anthony Lombardo, whose first restaurant, SheWolf, earned national acclaim.  

At Medusa, Lombardo successfully reinterprets the polyglot history of Sicilian cuisine approachably, and with an air of fun.  

The decidedly Italian design flair, the hip-hop beats, an exacting Italian menu — Medusa is Sicily, it’s Detroit, it’s Lombardo. 

Like SheWolf, which opened in the same neighborhood in 2018, Medusa is deeply personal for Lombardo. Whereas SheWolf draws from his adventures in Rome, the swerve into Sicilian territory is a culinary journeythrough his paternal heritage. And with Medusa, you get a fuller picture of Lombardo’s perspective, aesthetic and culinary acumen. 

This is what a second act does for a chef. A second location shouldn’t replicate the last, nor should it abandon its defining elements. When done well, it builds a portfolio that will eventually offer diners insight into the chef’s distinguished point of view. The threads that connect SheWolf and Medusa make Lombardo’s values clear: Lombardo is an ambitious chef, capable of executing his culinary vision. 

Under Italian rule since the 1800s, Sicily, the fertile island at the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, has a long history under the dominion of various empires. Medusa tells that history on its menu like a land acknowledgement, offering cultural context for the ingredients and the dishes served. 

The presence of olive oil and honey in Sicilian cuisine is a culinary imprint of Greek rule over Sicily before the start of the common era. In contrast to the dairy-forward northern region of Italy where butter is king, olive oil is the dominant fat in the South — and in turn, at Medusa. Swipe tears of hot panelle, or chickpea fritters, through a creamy, earthy aioli made of whipped olive oil and punctuatedwith a salt flake pupil. The panelle are golden, crispy on the outside and porridge-like inside, and drizzled with a sweet, sticky Calabrian honey.

Roman rule introduced items like fish sauce, the menu explains, which shows up as a funky, umami garum dressing to punch up mild slices of raw bluefin tuna, while Norman rule in the 11th century brought equally sharp ingredients, such as capers and anchovies. The island’s position in the Mediterranean Sea made fresh fish and seafood ripe pairings for these bold flavors. At Medusa, a seafood salad of grilled octopus, shrimp and calamari is tossed in a pungent caper dressing and small hunks of lamb belly are pierced with a skewer as a street food starter. The lamb belly is unctuous and both spicy and verdant with heat from a harissa marinade and notes of earth from fresh rosemary needles. 

Most evident in Sicilian cuisine is the influence of Arab and Islamic rule. Bright bursts of citrus splash savory dishes with fresh oranges and lemon juice, buttery nuts, like pistachios and almonds and pine nuts dazzle rice dishes and the advent of couscous enters the arena. 

Here, crispy bites of arancini are glorious amalgamations of the island’s historical past. The flavor of saffron rice is like a mist of perfume to your palate, floral almost, but balanced with a ragu of beef and pork and sweet English peas.  

Pesce spada, Italian for swordfish, is the true chicken of the sea. The dense seared steak could almost be mistaken for a tender chicken breast, the perimeter of its surface a golden-brown outline. The fish sits on a spread of chickpeas in a harissa stew which rests on a bed of creamy labneh. The fish is mild, the stew a more complex delight, with heat traveling up the sides of your tongue to your ears to your throat. By the time the spice hits your brows, the sensations quell. The dish is a menu highlight, the chickpeas cooked just enough to call them done while maintaining a nutty crunch, the tomatoes ever present and labneh incorporated for a considerate cooling effect.

The dish is flawless. It evidences Lombardo’s ability to ace a balancing act. He juggles spicy, salty, and sweet elements with creamy and crunchy textures without dropping a single ball. 

Couscous at Medusa may surprise you. The menu has been updated to specify its super-fine texture. True to the style you’d experience in Sicily or Morocco, the couscous here is unlike the chewy pearls that typify Israeli and Lebanese varieties. Above the surface of the dish, the tiny granules are fluffy and light, and the bits that sink beneath the savory lobster broth are like grainy breadcrumbs sopping up stew. Swimming in a bowl of chubby seared scallops, meaty shrimp and velvety mussels, the couscous is a complete meal rather than a starchy side. 

If you can nab a corner booth at Medusa, you’ll have the best view in the house. 

The snug row of tables in your direct sightline calls acute attention to the large-stemmed glasses filled with rosy nonalcoholic spritzes, resting on nearly every table like sleeping flamingos. You can reach out and touch the expansive sgraffito mural that lines the wall behind you, feeling the texture of the artwork that was etched and hand-painted by local artists. You might watch bartenders pouring negronis and popping tops on Peronis behind the center bar that anchors the restaurant, or the servers stopping to fill tiny cups with pulls of robust espresso.  

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Enjoy a touch of whimsy as servers push a cannoli cart around the dining room, filling handmade shells tableside with creamy ricotta, and lift your gaze to the patio doors, where white fringe parasols shade bistro tables and chairs. If you take pleasure in people-watching, visit on a weekend when reservations are booked solid and the room is filled. You’ll hear everything, too. The music, the chatter, the clinking and scraping, the glass crashing and subsequent sweeping.

From this vantage point, you’ll begin to notice the ways Lombardo’s restaurants converge. You’ll see that Medusa shares the same modern and playful design elements that stand out at SheWolf, like a sleek center bar that anchors the space, touches of color and beautifully mirrored bathrooms where candles glow and flower arrangements cascade for the effect of a floral funhouse. And mythological references point to the chef’s inner child as he weaves thrilling stories of creatures and gorgons through his work. 

It becomes abundantly clear that Lombardo approaches his food programs with the ambition of a purist, taking a scratch concept to new heights. 

SheWolf’s defining quality is the pastificio, where pasta is not just handmade, but the grains for each pasta variety are hand-milled. The pastificio has grown to include pastas made for Medusa, such as springy bucatini tangled in salty grilled sardines and black currants. For Medusa, Lombardo invested in custom machinery to steam couscous to order, an expense he deemed worthy for what he hopes will become a staple at the new restaurant. 

Another identifying quality becoming a throughline of Lombardo’s craft — the art of al dente. Pleasantly firm pastas are as consistent at SheWolf as they are at Medusa. So are crunchy chickpeas that precisely miss the line of undercooked by a mere instinctual hair. 

These are elements that will become expected of Lombardo. Like an artist’s repertoire.

The backdrop to the chef’s progression is the growth and development of Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood. In 2025, Lombardo set out to transform what was formerly Smith and Co., later Vigilante Kitchen and Bar and, for a short stint, Epiphany Nain Rouge Kitchen; into something entirely his own. The space was stripped of any semblance to its past lives, completing a cul-de-sac where a shared patio connects Medusa with neighbors Barcade and Roar Brewing Co. 

The complex is a stone’s throw from SheWolf, where Lombardo got his Detroit start. 

The two restaurants are a part of a rising gastronomic tide, lifting Midtown into a culinary destination.

Medusa, 644 Selden St., Detroit. 313-798-3498; medusa-detroit.com